Jodi Kantor

Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist and Author

At the Podium

When Jodi Kantor, along with Megan Twohey, broke the story of Harvey Weinstein’s decades of alleged abuse, she sparked a movement exposing systematic abuses across industries. In a riveting program, Kantor takes audiences behind the scenes of investigative journalism, showing how she and her colleagues expose secrets that have been hidden for decades and what makes a story impactful. In exploring the resonance of the Weinstein investigation, she tackles topics such as common patterns and means of intimidation, as well as why so many women are now finding their voices and why people are finally listening.

To say it simply, Jodi inspired 6,500 women, including me! I watched the whole audience nodding their heads in unison as she spoke so movingly about her year and what needs to happen if this is the turning point for women. Amazing! She was a pleasure to work with, as are you. I hope we’ll have many future opportunities to work together. Thank you!

- Carolyn GanWatermark Conference for Women

About Jodi Kantor

Jodi Kantor is a prize-winning investigative reporter and best-selling author whose work has revealed hidden truths about power, gender, technology, politics and culture.

In October of 2017, she and Megan Twohey broke the story of Harvey Weinstein’s decades of sexual abuse allegations. Their work helped ignite the #metoo movement, shift attitudes, and spur new laws, policies and standards of accountability around the globe. Together with a team of colleagues who exposed harassment across industries, they were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, journalism’s highest award.

Before then, Ms. Kantor’s article about the havoc caused by automated scheduling systems in Starbucks workers’ lives spurred changes at the company and helped launch a national fair scheduling movement. After she and David Streitfeld investigated punishing practices at Amazon’s corporate headquarters, the company changed its human resources policies, introducing paternity leave and eliminating its employee ranking system.

The article she wrote about Harvard Business School’s attempt to change its climate for women provoked a national conversation about women in business schools. Ms. Kantor’s report on working mothers and breastfeeding inspired two readers to create the first free-standing lactation suites for nursing mothers, now available in hundreds of airports and stadiums.

For six years, Ms. Kantor wrote about Barack and Michelle Obama, delving into their ideas, biographies, family, marriage, faith and approach to the White House, and covering the 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns. Ms. Kantor’s best-selling book “The Obamas,” about their behind-the-scenes adjustment to the jobs of president and first lady, was published in 2012. Writing in the New York Review of Books, Ezra Klein said, “Jodi Kantor’s ‘The Obamas’ is among the very best books on this White House.”

For their work on Mr. Weinstein, Ms. Kantor and Ms. Twohey also received a George Polk Award, the McGill Medal for Journalistic Courage from the University of Georgia, and honors from the Los Angeles Press Club and the Canadian Journalism Foundation. Along with other members of the Times sexual harassment reporting team, they were awarded the IRE Medal, from Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc., the Batten Medal from the American Society of Newspaper Editors, a Scripps Howard Award for Impact, a special citation from the Goldsmith Awards of Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center and the Matrix Inaugural Incite Award from New York Women in Communications.

Ms. Kantor, a contributor to CBS This Morning, lives in Brooklyn with her husband, Ron Lieber, and their two daughters.

Ms. Kantor and Ms. Twohey are writing a book on the Weinstein investigation and sexual harassment, forthcoming from Penguin Press.